Queen Vic treatment for Keira's beau Rupert

by BAZ BAMIGBOYE

Last updated at 22:47 05 July 2007

Rupert Friend is to portray Prince Albert in the movie Young Victoria. He will star opposite award-winning Emily Blunt, who was cast back in February.

The film, which director Jean-Marc Vallee begins filming in and around London next month, will cover the years of political intrigue surrounding Victoria's claim to, and accession to, the throne, and her courtship with Albert.

The vibrant screenplay, by Oscar-winner Julian Fellowes, makes clear that Victoria and Albert were attracted to each other instantly .

The film, produced by Graham King, Sarah (Duchess of York) Ferguson and Martin Scorsese, will be an intimate exploration of Victoria and Albert's love. However, although there will be a bedroom scene, there will not be a sex scene.

As producer, King (who won a best picture Oscar for The Departed) observed: "There was a lot of passion in that relationship. I mean, they did have nine children, but we're going to be tasteful in what we show."

He added that for a while he was under budgetary pressure to do some location shooting abroad, but he was adamant that the film would be shot in Britain.

"You can't shoot a film about a great queen of England in bloody Budapest or Bucharest - or at least I can't. Audiences aren't stupid. They travel, so they know an Eastern European landscape when they see one," King told me.

Mr Friend who, as almost everyone knows goes out with Keira Knightley, played Mr Wickham in Pride And Prejudice, but his best work to date was opposite Joan Plowright in a little-seen film called Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont.